Chief Minister Siddaramaiah asked parents Wednesday not to coerce students into pursuing only engineering and medicine but allow them to pursue research for the country to produce renowned scientists such as Bharat Ratna C N R Rao.

He was addressing a function to mark the golden jubilee of Bangalore University at Central College campus. “The state government will support students to pursue higher education but it is disheartening to see many youngsters with high potential being pressured to focus on professional courses. IT and medicine are not the only streams students should go for. They must be allowed to pursue other interests, especially research,” Siddaramaiah said.

Commending C N R Rao on receiving the Bharat Ratna, the Chief Minister said he expected to see students in the state take a cue from the renowned scientist and win laurels at the national and international levels.

Former Isro chairman U R Rao said there was much scope for research in pure and applied sciences, especially in the area of space exploration.
“We tend to ignore the fact that with advanced technology our dependence on space for communication, navigation, agriculture, weather forecast increases proportionally. Therefore, the opportunity for students in space exploration is endless,” he said.

Rao insisted the state government and universities invest more to create quality infrastructure and find qualified academicians to attract students to research. “According to a recent Unesco study, there has been an increase in shortage of teachers in our country that is now close to two million. Immediate attention is needed to reverse this trend,” he said.